A regionally based Mental Health Education Project on Mental Health Issues in Applied Experimental Life-Span Developmental Psychology is proposed. An integrated educational experience that has several interlocking components is proposed for two years. This project will provide interested and qualified participants from a number of regional colleges a high-caliber, integrated learning experience that inculcates a set of critical knowledge, skills, and interest in life-span developmental research. Five educational components are proposed: 1) a core methodology course in Life-Span Developmental Research, 2) Applied Research Rotations; 3) An Ethics Seminar/workshop; 4) Research Apprenticeships; and 5) a year-long Follow-up Collaborative Research Mentorship. Components 1-4 are centered in an 8-week on-site residential Summer Institute conducted by members of the psychology department at Buffalo State College (BSC). The team-taught core methodology course covers critical features of mental health and life-span research while the research rotations expose participants to experiences in an actual applied research setting. The Ethics Seminar is scheduled weekly for one and a half hours across seven weeks and provides an "active learning" approach to research and professional ethics. The Research Apprenticeship and the Follow-up Collaborative Research Mentorship are intimately related. In the last four weeks of the summer institute, participants will spend increasingly more time with their mentor, collaborating in some of the mentor's research program and developing their own related research proposal. Participants will then complete the research at their home institution under the supervision of a sponsor from their home school and in conjunction with their BSC mentor. The proposed project will accomplish a variety of student-centered educational goals, including stimulating interest in careers in mental health, help stimulate faculty research and mentorship, and stimulate collaboration regionally.